


Out of the shadows

by Caffeine_faerie



Series: Assorted prompt oneshots [3]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Epilogue, F/M, Missing Scene, Post-Episode: s03e22 All Good Things..., clace, post-series finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 09:17:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18753460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caffeine_faerie/pseuds/Caffeine_faerie
Summary: It was Jace who suffered the most from Raziel's spite - not Clary. This is a Jace POV of the year after the Malec wedding.





	Out of the shadows

**Author's Note:**

> My attempt to sort it out in my head. (Unbeta'd - be kind).  
> I'm still sobbing though.
> 
> There is no way in Edom the timeline for the show is 3 and a half months. Izzy would still be a Yin Feng wreck, and Max would not have grown up as much as he did in those few short months. Let alone Luke moving on as quickly as he did. So I'm afraid I do not accept that timeline. I'm still going with time jumps between the seasons because it makes waaaaay more sense.

He had watched her - glamoured, of course - for the year. No matter what Simon, or Izzy, or even Alec said, he couldn't let her go. She was his life. His soul. Everything good about him. 

When the Angel had punished her by taking away her memories of the Shadow world, it was only in the moments that she was losing her runes that she was being punished. But for those who had been left behind, the payment had been too steep. 

_Dura lex sed lex_. The law is hard, but it is the law. 

"Lex malla, lex nulla" Helen had muttered under her breath to him once, but Aline had hushed her for saying so. 

It wasn't a bad law, per se, it's just that the person who had been punished was ignorant of it, and had more than made up for her transgressions against the angel in that last act of subduing her brother. The angels weren't going to help, and there would not have been any Nephilim left if Clary hadn't gone against Raziel's wishes and Jocelyn's warnings in the end. 

No, he was the one left suffering. Praying, every night for some form of grace and forgiveness. And watching her live was both his punishment and his salvation. If he could be the shadow protecting her, so be it. He was the one with half a soul. Not the others.

Simon and Izzy had each other, as did Maryse and Luke... and Alec and Magnus of course. He knew that Clary was monitored by the Clave - her file had been restricted, but with Alec now being the Inquisitor, there was no way he was not going to keep tabs on the love of Jace's life. They all had settled into some sort of routine. Life had moved on, but not for him. 

As he'd watched her creating her pieces for the exhibition, he was shocked at how her style had changed. No more clear and lifelike detail. Now it was abstract - shapes and colours through frosted glass - unformed, like her memories. And it had pained him that she had lost that about herself, even if she hadn't realised it herself. 

It was soon after Alec and Magnus left for Alicante and Izzy took over the Institute that he seriously started considering walking away from it all. He had lifted a few brochures and enrolment forms from the academy one particularly trying day and looked them over. Sebastian - no - Jonathan wasn't lying when he described Jace as a virtuoso, and the Brooklyn Academy of Art had a sister institution that offered music performance, and he was quite certain he could get accepted into that course. 

It was just all the mundane things that he would need to take care of. Lorenzo had been helpful and very understanding when Jace had dropped by unannounced one day to see him. The High Warlock of Brooklyn had smiled and told him he'd take care of everything - Lorenzo had even said he knew of a place for Jace to live, and not to worry about the little things. 

He had been surprised when Lorenzo had listed everything off, but the warlock looked like he had been waiting for Jace to see him and make such a proposal. He wondered what had happened to make him so transparent.

"You have lost like few others have. And it shows." That's what Brother Zachariah had said when Jace had gone to the City of Bones to see him. "But you are strong and you will endure." Later, Zachariah had found him next to the river and told him that he would perform the de-runing ceremony should Jace want it, but he needed to be absolutely sure. 

He was sure. He would choose Clary over the rest of the world every single time. And if he had to leave the world he had known behind just so that he could see her, and she could see him, and maybe - just maybe - they could be together, then he would do so without a second thought.

Zachariah had managed to counsel him to not do it then and there, but wait a while. At least, until the next set of enrollments began and give him time enough to say his own sort of goodbye to his family. The silent brother, at least, had approved of a pursuit in music. 

So this is why he was leaning up against a pillar in an art gallery, despite his promises to Simon, watching her with her many admirers at her end of year exhibition. She wouldn't know him when she met him again as a mundane, but hopefully she would like him. This was his last goodbye to his old life, and she would be there in his new one, or so he prayed. 

He realised with a start that she was looking in his direction with an indecipherable expression. He turned to follow her gaze, but there was nobody behind him. He turned back. She was looking at him.

_She was looking at him_. And she was moving towards him. And this couldn't be happening. 

"Sorry, I didn't mean to spook you."

"You can see me?" 

"Yeah, of course I can see you." 

And suddenly he was back outside the Pandemonium 4 years and a lifetime before uttering those same first words to her. And she had the same look in in her eyes then as she did now. All curiosity and confidence. And she could see him. And he needed air. 

His mind was racing has he stalked down the alley. What had just happened? How could she see him now. Why could she see him now. 

"Hey!" her voice followed him down the alley and he walked faster. "Hey! I'm talking to you!"

He stopped and turned as she caught up with him. She could see him, and he was terrified of what that meant. She was studying his face.

"Don't I know you, from somewhere?" There was a hint of desperation in her voice.

There were so many things he could say, but he swallowed them back. "No, I don't think so -"

"No, I do." Clary cut him off. "I definitely do. I..." he could see the moment she remembered his name. "You're Jace... right?"

Hope began to bloom in his chest as the emptiness in his heart began to flood with warmth. He felt himself start to smile. "Yeah."

"Yeah?" Merciful Angel he had missed her smile. 

"Yeah, I'm Jace." He couldn't believe this was happening. She was here and she could see him, and she could remember his name. 

"I'm..." she inched closer, not breaking eye contact. "I'm Clary."

Her smile lit up the alley and his soul. He drank in her face and her green eyes, praying this wasn't a dream. And then she saw the rune on his neck and her expression changed. 

"Um... what are those tattoos on your neck?" 

She moved closer and he wanted to run. He couldn't handle her touching him, not now, not without her memories. But he stood rooted to the spot, and her hand came up to gently tug his t-shirt so she could get a better look at his rune. 

He heard her gasp as she touched his skin. He felt like he was on fire. He caught her eyes again and time stood still. He smiled, and she remembered them. She was remembering all of it. Of them. Of how much he loved her. 

"Every single cell in my body loves you. And those cells die and new ones are born and those cells love you even more..." There were tears in her eyes now even though she was smiling at him.

"Clary, I -" she raised her other hand to touch his lips.

"Shhh. It's okay Jace. The angels would have had a reason."

And suddenly she was in his arms and they were crying and laughing, and his world finally felt whole again. 

 


End file.
